Character development is an important step in bringing your ancestor to the page. But unfortunately, few writers take the time to fully flesh out their ancestor’s character before they write their story. This leaves the reader with a flat and unremarkable character. If you want to write about real people, then it’s critical we do the work of character development. Today’s video offers some initial first steps in the process.
When we fall in love with an ancestor on the page, we don’t fall in love with the fact that he is a 56-year-old farmer from Ireland with brown hair, a stalky build and always wears a hat. We don’t fall in love with the physical characteristics that we continuously get so caught up in knowing and inserting into our writing. (By the way, most readers will forget these facts.) What we tend to fall in love with is our ancestor’s motivations, their flaws, their vulnerabilities, their strengths. We don’t fall in love with their physical qualities, but with what’s at the core of them internally, what makes them real.
And yet, when we write about our ancestors to tend to only focus on their physical being. We also question if we don’t have a picture of them how can we possibly bring them to life on the page.
In the novella I am writing about my third great-grandfather I don’t know his physical description. I don’t have a picture of him. I don’t know the colour of his hair. It really is quite insignificant. It doesn’t progress the story forward. It doesn’t contribute to the plot, and it doesn’t allow my reader to see my ancestor more deeply.
Only a few physical details are available to me. But I’m not worried.
I do know his goals, his desires, his motivations. I know his fears, his vulnerabilities. I know his life story. I know his actions and reactions to events in his life. And from his actions, the people he associates with and his past I can bring him to life for my reader.
So how do you make your ancestor real on the page? There are many questionnaires available to help you to get to know your ancestor better. But you’ve got to use one that doesn’t just address their physical attributes, but that gets to the heart of their internal selves. (Warning shameless plug – We’ve got a great one in workbook #2 Authentic Ancestors with lots of info on bringing your ancestor to life on the page)
To know your ancestor completely, you’ve got to know the emotional truths in their being, the relationships, and the history that influenced them, and the way they chose to act in the world and as a result how they were perceived.
Let’s address these 3 big things so you can get to know your ancestor before writing.
Figure out your ancestor’s primary goal. What is the one most urgent desire they have more than anything in the world? (Hint: This is probably the entire reason you’re writing this story. And it should be highly tied to your plot.
After identifying the goal, we have to dig deeper and discover the why behind it. For your ancestor to ring true, he can’t just want something arbitrary. It must have a higher meaning. Why do they want this thing so much?
Keep in mind, sometimes, what your character thinks they want and what they actually want are two different things entirely. Perhaps they believe they wish to conquer the world, but really they just want to make their father proud. Maybe they think they want to fall in love with someone, but what they need is to love themselves.
Your ancestor’s actions did not happen in a void. Things have happened in your ancestor’s past, and those things influenced their actions and choices.
If your ancestor watched her parents work as a peasant farmer never getting ahead, she might have a strong desire to own land or maybe get an education. If your ancestor lost a parent at a young age, he might feel strongly about becoming a doctor and healing the sick. If your ancestor came from a long line of military men he may feel loyalty to do the same. Or perhaps he had a want to rebel against serving in a war. Their actions and choices show these thoughts. Their past experiences influenced their decisions.
Map out a historical timeline of your ancestor’s life. Record all the significant milestones, births, marriages, deaths, careers, military, etc. Identify the 5 most significant, most life-changing and influencing moments they’ve ever had.
Try to sum up your ancestor’s life with those 5 moments. What would those moments be? Why?
CONSIDER How RELATIONSHIPS Affected Your Ancestors
“Birds of a feather flock together.”
Like-minded people tend to hang together. But, it also works in the opposite direction. People who hang together become like-minded. It’s said that your thoughts and behaviors are a compilation of the 5 people you are most intimate with. Those you surround yourself with day-to-day influence you more than you realize. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes not.
Who are the 5 people who your ancestor hangs out with? Friends? Family members? Coworkers? Spouse? Consider how these relationships shaped your ancestor’s perspective on the world. Their behavior? What does your ancestor’s relationship with their mother, wife, children look like? Who does your ancestor trust the most? Who would your ancestor call if they had a problem and needed advice? What does your ancestor’s relationship with their significant-other look like? Are these relationships positive or negative?
Of course, we’ve all experienced relationships that weren’t positive. We’ve all ran into someone we didn’t get along with for some reason. Your ancestor did too. Consider who that may have been. What happened to cause this bond to turn negative. How did this relationship shape them?
Behavior may be aligned with your ancestor’s beliefs, or it may seem to be wholly misaligned with your ancestor’s beliefs. But this is the perception that your ancestor gives off to the world. This is how other people perceive your ancestor because they don’t have access to their innermost thoughts.
Was your ancestor outgoing? Did they talk a lot because they’re internally nervous? Maybe your ancestor always acted out of spontaneity, or carefully planned every move ahead of time. Perhaps your ancestor planned their words before they said them. Was your ancestor action-heavy and continually going places and doing things. Or was your ancestor shy and locked inside their own head? Did they speak quickly or slowly? Perhaps they felt the need to be proper and ladylike all the time. Maybe they felt the need to show dominance. Maybe they worried so much about what other people thought, or they didn’t care at all and did their own thing against social norms.
How did your ancestor behave in public? How did they present themselves? How did they act? What is the vibe they gave off to the world? How does the world view them?
Here’s An Exercise For You
Now here’s an exercise to help you flesh out your most authentic ancestor. Imagine you met your ancestor at a party and you asked them the classic question, “Tell me about yourself.”
What would they say? What aspects of their life would they choose to highlight? What successes would they bring up? What interests might they want to talk about? What basic facts do they feel they need to share with you? What positive things do they think they need to convey for this person (who doesn’t know them) to perceive them accurately?
When we write our family history stories one of our primary goals is to bring our reader and our ancestors closer together. Our goal is to help our reader to emotionally connect with our ancestor. There are five ways we can help make this happen in our family history stories.
The 5 ways we are going to cover involve both interior and exterior characterization. If you try to merge all five into your story when describing an ancestor, you’ll have a three-dimensional ancestor.
What is a three-dimensional ancestor? This is an ancestor that comes to life on the page for your reader. It is an ancestor that appears alive and real and standing in front of us and not lifeless and flat. It is an ancestor that your reader can connect with, through physically being able to see them in their mind’s eye, but all being able to connect with them emotionally. It involves using both interior and exterior characterization to bring our ancestor to the page.
Exterior characterization is achieved by showing your ancestor’s behaviour towards other people, their attitude to their surroundings and their physical characteristics.
Interior characterization involves using their thoughts about themselves and other people to help us to understand who they are.
We can tell or show the reader about aspects of our ancestors’ personalities and lives. We want both. We do this by showing them interacting with their surroundings, their body language and with dialogue.
1. Telling: Tell the reader who your ancestor is and what he or she does.
Example: Henry loved to wear a cowboy hat.
2. Showing: Allow your ancestor’s actions to show the reader their character.
Example: Henry headed out the door of his 5th Avenue Manhattan apartment. He grabbed his white cowboy hat from the table by the door. Pushing his sandy brown hair from his forehead, he eased the hat on his head and checked his reflection in the mirror.
3.Thinking: You can show an ancestor by allowing the reader to see the thoughts behind their actions and words. What an ancestor thinks about can help explain a great deal about them.
Example: Pushing his sandy brown hair from his forehead, Henry eased the hat on his head and checked his reflection in the mirror. Although he had been in the city for more than a year, he just couldn’t part with his cowboy hat. Besides, the ladies loved it.
4.Others: You can show us who your ancestor is by how he or she treats other people and the way others treat him.
Example: Your ancestor may be treated with reverence, fear or even hate. She may be treated with gentleness or insignificance. His or her prejudices and beliefs will also affect the way he or she handles others. Perhaps they show hatred for others different from themselves, religion, appearance, their class in society.
5.The Outside World: We can use the way our ancestor looks at the world around them to allow us a glimpse into their state of mind.
Example: A content ancestor sees the first winter’s snowfall as beautiful. An unhappy ancestor may be depressed by the freezing cold temperatures and being confined to indoors. The images and words you choose to create the world around your ancestor can help shape your ancestor’s mood according to his or her viewpoint.
When you incorporate showing, telling, thinking, how your ancestor treats others and how they act and react to the outside world you have a better chance of bringing your ancestor to the page. As a result, your reader is more likely able to get to know your ancestor, seeing them in their mind’s eye but also emotionally connecting with them.
Painting a Picture with Characterization
Authentic Ancestors Workbook – Bringing Your Ancestors to Life through Characterization